Little Lost Kitten
by Yamato's Tiger Lily
Summary: The thunder rumbled again and suddenly felt a little lonely. There wasn't a particular reason for it; he had six brothers but for the flippant attitude they had… maybe it wasn't a big deal to them.


**Little Lost Kitten**

When Ichimatsu Matsuno was small, he had gotten lost. He would always stick with his big brothers and little brothers but this day was different. He had gotten distracted, and subsequently lost, because of some helpless meowing. At the time, he didn't realize he had gotten lost – he just gotten distracted by the sound of the sad sound.

After he turned around the corner, he could see he was in the alleyway. The afternoon sun was bright and the welcoming darkness invited him in as he searched for the source of the noise. However, it didn't take long – eventually, he did find the box where a little orange cat mewed with all its strength for any sort of attention.

The cat seemed to squint its eyes, even though it seemed to be pretty big for a kitten. The cat has a white belly, with a big red nose that's shaped like a button, and quite large eyebrows. The cat didn't seem to have noticed the young boy, who gazed on the cat with a fascinated look.

Ichimatsu didn't say anything. He never felt that he had to. He wondered if the kitten was supposed to be there. He then moved around the box to see if there were a sign and eventually he found a hastily scribed "Free Kittens" on the actual box – but the weather had diminished the sign so he was barely able to read it.

Still, he'd get the general idea. He had no idea if he, or anyone else in his sextuplet group, were even allowed to have pets, much less this blind little kitten. The cat would meow every so often and run into the side of the box and it'd move it. Eventually, the cat gave up on moving and sat itself down. It seemed to finally, at least, sense Ichimatsu's presence and started to meow even louder.

Ichimatsu got scared, for some reason, and ran out the alleyway. By now, it had gotten a bit darker and he ran into someone and they both fell on the ground. When he opened his eyes, he realized it was his big brother, Karamatsu.

"Hey, Ichimatsu," he asked as he rubbed his bottom from the fall, "where did you go? Mom's worried about you."

He stood up and reached over to Ichimatsu to help him up. Ichimatsu smiled and grabbed his hand as he stood up.

"Ah, it's nothing, Karamatsu-niisan! I was just checking something out." He adjusted himself and his school bag, as well as to make sure there wasn't any dirt on it. "It's not a big deal." He was about to shrug off the sight he had seen until he heard the usual rumbling of thunder and rain. It started to sprinkle and then outright rain, and a little bit of thunder. The two used whatever they had in hand to cover themselves when they heard the frantic cries of the cat in the box.

Ichimatsu audibly gasped and realized that the cat may have been getting rained on. He rushed back, even with his older brother calling after him, into the alleyway and saw that the box had started to fill with dirty rain water. The cat seemed much more frantic in escaping but with the oncoming rain, it seemed to have mostly focused on using its energy to escape. Ichimatsu didn't think – he just grabbed the cat and tried his best to protect it more from the rain. The cat used its immature claws to clutching to the young boy as possible. Ichimatsu gave up on trying to protect himself from the rain but instead, ran as much as he could to protect the cat from the rain, even though the cat was already soaked.

He didn't know if Karamatsu followed him home but eventually he made it back. Once he made it home, the cat mewled softly, perhaps in thanks, and Ichimatsu went to change his clothes. He brought the cat with him and as he waited for the coast to be clear, he managed to not just dry himself but the cat as well. The cat seemed to be curious about its new surroundings and started to wander around the house.

Because of its poor eyesight, it kept running into random things on the floor as well as any furniture that had been settled. Ichimatsu had to change into his pajamas and rushed as much as he could to get back to the soaked and confused cat. He ate his dinner quickly, he was quite distracted from his homework, and he didn't really feel like participating in any fun games his other brother had in store for the rest of the evening.

"What's wrong, Ichimatsu?" Osomatsu asked, ever the more observant one of the six. Ichimatsu jumped slightly at the sudden question. "You're so jumpy tonight, are you getting scared of thunder like Choromatsu?"

"Hey! You promised you wouldn't tell anyone else!" Choromatsu yelled in protest.

"Uh, uh," Ichimatsu stuttered and tried to find the perfect excuse. And yet, he couldn't think of anything right away until the sextuplets heard a mewling sound coming from the room. They all rushed up quickly, although young Ichmatsu tried to beat them.

However, he somehow managed and blocked the doorway to their bedroom.

"What's in there?"

"Ichimatsu-niisan?"

"Ichi!"

"Nu-uh!" Ichimatsu said as he tried his best to block the door. The mewling continued, now sounding a bit hungry. "You can't! It's rainy outside! He'll die!"

"Who'll die, Ichimatsu? We won't kill anyone…"

The fourth brother still protected the door. Even though they had promised this, he knew that Osomatsu, the eldest, had a plot already cooked up to hurt the cat. While the six children often prank the likes of Chibita and the weird guy who thinks he's French, Iyami, sometimes Osomatsu's other plans that involved other people seemed kind of mean. He's not a bad brother, or even a bad person, but sometimes his jokes went too far – and the kitten Ichimatsu found didn't deserve to be the brunt of his jokes.

"Come on! Let's see! We won't hurt the kitty!" Jyushimatsu, ever the energetic brother, had said.

Somehow, hearing that from Jyushimatsu comforted Ichimatsu to where he slowly started to accept their promises of no harm.

"Don't tell Mom or Papa, okay? It's going to be our secret," Ichimatsu said as he slowly gauged his curious brothers' reactions to his words. They only grew much more curious. He finally turned and slid the door open as slowly as he could as well as small as he could fit him and his five brothers inside the room.

He looked for the kitty cat and called for it as his brothers stood around and tried their best to be patient. Soon, Ichimatsu found him and showed him the now semi dried up cat who just couldn't seem to see. He held him up under the paws, as the thunder rumbled. The cat seemed a bit more frantic, given the situation, but didn't move around too much in his grasp.

The boys were surprised, but laughed it off. "Is that it?" asked Todomatsu, "It's just a blind cat."

Ichimatsu pouted and put the cat back on the ground. He didn't want to say anything back.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Osomatsu asked as the brothers turned around and they talked amongst themselves about whatever show they were watching prior to Ichimatsu's interruption.

He watched them as they left and sighed. He heard that cat meow again and this time noticed that the cat was trying to get his attention. He bent back down and softly petted it.

"Those guys are jerks, I'm sorry, I'll get you some new eyes…" He told the cat. The thunder rumbled again and suddenly felt a little lonely. There wasn't a particular reason for it; he had six brothers but for the flippant attitude they had… maybe it wasn't a big deal to them. After all, there's a bunch of strays outside around the house and where they lived generally. It was an everyday event for the Matsuno brothers to see some form of cat and maybe it's just because Ichimatsu made it a bigger deal than it was…

He sighed, and felt bad. There was something about this cat in particular that he just immediately got attached to. He couldn't understand it and he couldn't explain it. Maybe the weird doctor, Dekapan would find this kitten a home…

.x.

Ichimatsu rushed home as much as fast as he could. Once again, his brothers were curious but this time they weren't so curious that they didn't want to brother, except Jyushimatsu. He followed his older brother back to where he kept the cat and saw him put the cat in his bag.

He didn't seem to notice Jyushimatsu watching him from afar and just seemed to rush. He just wanted to help this cat, someway…

Once Ichimatsu made it to the laboratory, he took a deep breath and knocked the door as loud as his little fists could. He hoped that weird doctor wouldn't try to create any weird robots or do anything weird to the cat he brought. He tightened his bag in response – he didn't want anything bad to happen to this blind cat.

Soon, the underpants-clad doctor opened the door and, as per usual, he wore his giant striped shorts with blue and an open lab coat.

"Oh, hello! How can I help you today? Do you need me to create a robot for you?"

Ichimatsu, suddenly, got really nervous about asking about the cat. Images of a robot cat flooded his imagination and he started to regret his decision already. And yet, before he was able to deny anything, the cat then decided to mewl really loudly to where even Doctor Dekapan was caught off guard.

"Ah, you brought a cat?" He asked gently.

Ichimatsu started to stutter but the best thing he could do is open the bag and just shoved the cat in his face. He didn't want the cat to go but he didn't know where else to get help.

"Hm, this cat seems to be having trouble seeing. Come on in, and let's see what we can do to help."

The fourth son opened his eyes and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He didn't want Doctor Dekapan do anything mean to the cat… after all, his brothers already seemed to reject him anyway…

He kept the cat within his arms, where the cat stopped struggling and seemed to relax there. It seemed to purr? It was an odd sensation. Sometimes he'd pet the stray cats and sometimes they'd let him and sometimes they didn't; but hardly any of the cats purred in the manner this one did. It was loud and it merely surprised him. And it also… felt nice. He usually doesn't get praise or good comments from anyone and it always felt as though he had to fight for everything in his short little life. Sometimes, he just wishes he could be just as free as the cats.

When Dekapan asked for the cat, it was then that Ichimatsu came out of his thoughts. Hesitantly, he gave him a suspicious look but eventually he gave him the cat. The doctor laughed pleasantly as the cat meowed and mewled and moved around. He made some kind of comment but Ichimatsu couldn't hear it very well. He took the cat away and Ichimatsu wondered if he should follow the weird, underpants clad doctor.

 _It'd be kind of weird and I would just get in the way…_ he thought to himself. He decided to stay in the room and, after a bit of looking, he eventually found a chair to sit down in. He thought about his brothers, if they bothered to worry about him at all, and the cats. He'd always feel like the cats cared about his thoughts more than his brothers. Often, he'd find himself talking to the cats and he'd be regular cheerful Ichimatsu.

The cats never had anything mean to say or would judge him. They wouldn't dismiss his concerns for these creatures who wander outside on their own. The cat he found nearly died that day because of the rain… and because someone just left him there to die. They never intended to actually have the kitten adopted – if the adoption box were any indication.

Ichimatsu started to feel even worse. He didn't want to abandon the cat either. He didn't like the feeling of loneliness and for the kitten to feel that at such a young age… it made him feel bad. It made him start to wonder what would he had been like had he not have three older brothers to depend on and how his two younger brothers would depend on him.

These thoughts started to form a dark cloud over his mind when he heard the professor call his name. Out of the depths of the darkness, he saw the same orange tabby. Instead of the confused and squinting look on its face, the cat adorned thick blue round glasses that somehow fit the cat's face. Most cats couldn't wear glasses normally but the professor made it work.

"Here you go, young one! I've developed special eye glasses for him so he can see better. Are you going to take him to the shelter?" he asked.

Then, Ichimatsu made a decision that even he was surprised at.

"Nah! I'm going to take him home!" He grabbed the cat and bowed in appreciation. The professor smiled at the young boy and patted his head.

"Yes, yes, yes," he said as he laughed a little. "Go take that little lost kitten home."

Ichimatsu rose up and nodded. After that, he decided that from now on, he was going to try to save as many lost kittens as he could. He didn't want to feel the sad emotions anymore about cats. He wanted to save them all and help every single little lost kitten.


End file.
